CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDEPENDENT CZECHOSLOVAK STATE …

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDEPENDENT CZECHOSLOVAK STATE AND ITS FRONTIERS IN THE LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND POLITICS OF 1918–1920 Jan Kuklík

Abstract: The study deals with the problems of recognition connected with the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918–1920. Czechoslovakia as an independent state was established after the dissolution and demise of the existing state – Austria-Hungary. However, the representation of the newly conceived state (a state in statu nascendi) had come into existence and had been gradually and to a different extent recognized by Allied powers even before the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Czechoslovakia as a newly emerging state had been internationally recognized through its exile bodies and military troops even before it was declared by the local political representation on 28 October 1918. The establishment of Czechoslovakia was also closely linked to its recognition as a “belligerent nation” on the side of Allies. All that happened at the time of newly defined theory of the right of a people to self-determination, particularly after the USA joined the war and declared the Fourteen Points of President Wilson. The process of establishment of the Czechoslovak state was not complete from the point of view of international law on 28 October 1918; certain important classifying criteria of an independent state, such as definite borders, control over the state territory and the population were satisfied later by the peace treaties concluded at the Paris Peace Conference which started in January 1919. These treaties confirmed the existence of new states, including Czechoslovakia, and their borders and dealt with other important issues of international law connected with the establishment of a state as well as the consequences of disintegration of Austria-Hungary. Paris Peace Conference also finally brought to end hopes of Czech Germans for the secession however it introduced the newly established system of protection of minorities under the auspices of the League of Nations. In the period of 1914–1919 certain principles of traditional international law were confronted with the real life situations to which they needed to respond. The study therefore examines concrete practical diplomacy of individual Allied states as well, as confrontation of the so called constitutive theory of recognition (followed especially by Great Britain and USA) with the declaratory theory developed and kept by newly established states including Czechoslovakia. Resumé: Studie se zabývá problematikou spojenou s uznáním Československa v letech 1918–1920. Československo jako samostatný stát bylo vyhlášeno po rozpuštění a zániku Rakousko-Uherska. Nicméně, reprezentace nově vznikajícího státu (statu nascendi) byla ustavována postupně a byla respektována spojeneckými mocnostmi ještě před krachem Ra- kousko-Uherska. Československo jako nově se rozvíjející stát tak byl mezinárodně uznáván prostřednictvím svých exilních orgánů a vojenských jednotek ještě předtím, než jej místní politická reprezentace vyhlásila dne 28. října 1918. Založení Československa bylo také úzce spjato s jeho uznáním jako „bojujícího národa“ na straně spojenců. Uvedený proces probíhal v rámci nově definované teorie práva národů

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